David Baldacci - The Keeper

I got off the bed and shook the collywobbles from my head.

“You saw what was happening?” I asked.

“What, you mean in Wormwood? Morrigone? John?”

I nodded. “Astrea was shocked by how Morrigone looked. Something is going on. But she doesn’t know what. And it’s scaring her.”

“Well, if it’s scaring the likes of her, we ought to be terrified, I reckon.”

I could always count on Delph for spot-on observations. But terrified or not, I didn’t come into the Quag to finish my life as a prisoner. Every part of my body was burning with one desire.

To be free.

The next light, we cornered Seamus outside of the kitchen. The little hob had kept his distance from us ever since Astrea declared us to be no longer free.

“So can you leave if you want, Seamus?” I asked, as Delph and Harry Two hovered in the background.

He looked at me nervously, his huge eyes twitching.

“I don’t knowsey what yousies is talki—”

“Seamus!” I said warningly.

Harry Two gave a low, throaty growl that I could tell was making the hob very anxious.

“I can go if I want to,” he said warily. “But you can’t.”

I studied him closely. “Seamus, why do I think that meeting you in the cave was not a coincidence?”

I could tell right away from the look on his face that I was right. He blustered and denied and blustered some more, but I persisted and would not let him leave.

“Well, it might’ve not been,” he finally conceded.

“Because Astrea sent you?”

He looked around cautiously before giving a brief nod of his large head.

“And the flying creature that made me run into the cave?”

“Well, she might have sent that too.”

“And the cloud that took Delph away?” I added bitterly. “She conjured that too, didn’t she? Didn’t she!”

Seamus slowly nodded, though I had never seen him look so frightened.

Delph said, “But why?”

I glanced at him before looking back at Seamus. “Because Astrea saw us in the Seer-See. She was afraid we might make it across the Quag. She manipulated things so Seamus and I would meet. And one thing led to another and then here we are — prisoners forever.”

Seamus gave a resigned sigh. “She is very powerful, is Madame Prine.”

I leaned in closer to the hob. “Well, you know what?”

“What?” he said, his eyes as huge as supper plates.

I snarled, “I’m powerful too.”

Later, I led Delph to the library. My thought was that in some of the books, we might find things that would better explain what Archie had already told us. If there was a terrible war between our kind and the Maladons, someone had to have chronicled it somewhere.

I told Delph to start at one end and I would begin at the other. However, it was not to be.

I reached for a book and tugged. It would not come out. I tried with both hands. The same result. I looked over at Delph, who had one big foot placed against the front of the shelf as he pulled with all his might on one thick volume.

“Blimey!” he finally cried out, sounding winded and letting go of the book.

“It’s Astrea’s doing,” I said, my fury rising. “She doesn’t want us finding out anything else from the books. Which of course means that these books do explain things.”

I gazed longingly at the thick tomes. Just inches from my hand and they were of no use to me. Their pages might as well have been blank.

We went to Archie’s room. When I tried to open the door, it screamed at me, “GO AWAY!”

“Holy Steeples,” said Delph, who had jumped nearly to the ceiling, though I didn’t because I was used to this “greeting,” though not at Archie’s door.

“Well,” I said. “It seems that Astrea is certainly limiting our run of the cottage. Which is actually a good thing.”

“Why do you say that?” asked a stunned Delph.

“She’s afraid we might find something useful. Which means there’s something useful here.”

But as much thought as I had given to this, the way we would get out was one I had never even considered.

I didn’t mean to intrude upon her. But I simply walked in and there was Astrea looking at her Seer-See. In the image was Morrigone, still looking bedraggled. She was waving her hands around as she had done when performing magic. I didn’t know what she was doing until Astrea waved her wand over the image and it rippled as though someone had tossed a handful of pebbles in a bucket of water.

Morrigone nodded and lowered her hands.

Now I understood.

They were communicating. And then I knew that Morrigone must have told Astrea all about me and to be on the lookout. That I could do a bit of magic, that I had learned some of the truth about Wormwood and that I had escaped from Morrigone and Wormwood. My anger at Astrea increased a thousandfold. She had led me right into her trap.

The next thing I knew, Astrea had turned and was looking up at me, her wand uncomfortably pointed in my general direction.

“What are you doing here?” she asked sharply.

“You said I could go where I wanted in here,” I said innocently. “So did you have a nice little chat with dear Morrigone?” I said acidly.

With a flick of her wand the images were gone and the wood was now simply wood once more.

Astrea and I locked gazes.

“You really should keep your nose out of things that do not concern you,” she said in a tone that managed to send chills up my spine.

However, I stiffened my resolve and snapped, “Well, it is my business if the consequences will affect me. And Wormwood. It might not be your home, but it is mine. Did you know that bloody King Thorne intended to invade and destroy Wormwood? Do you even care?”

“I would not have allowed—”

“Bollocks!” I shouted out. “You don’t care!”

“I would remind you—”

But I was not to be denied my say. “You may be safe under your emerald dome; not everyone has that opportunity, Mighty Keeper of the Quag.”

“You are safe here,” she retorted.

“Not by my choosing,” I shot back. I had anticipated her response. “And I did not enter the Quag to be safe. Only a fool would do that. And I’m no fool.”

The door was thrown open and Delph and Harry Two appeared. Behind them I could see Seamus’s huge eyes peering at me.

They came fully into the room and Delph shut the door.

“Everything okay?” he said nervously.

“No, everything is not okay,” I barked, keeping my eyes on Astrea.

“You’re acting very foolishly, Vega,” she said darkly.

“Oh, so it’s foolish in your eyes to care what happens to others? I suppose you didn’t care when Alice Adronis died in battle, then? I did. I cared. I was there. I guess you were already in your hidey-hole here by then, were you?”

“Better to hide than die!” she retorted.

“Better to fight and die than live as a coward!” I screamed in her smug face.

“Fight!” She chortled. “You wouldn’t last a sliver.”

“I can fight!”

“You are nothing! Even your grandfather understood that. It’s why he didn’t bother with the likes of you. He left you behind. Where you belong!”

I pointed a finger right in her face. “I am more than you will ever be, you insufferable cow!”

Her wand moved so fast I barely followed the motion. She said something I couldn’t quite catch and then I was catapulted across the room, slammed against the wall and fell to the floor, bleeding from innumerable slashes and cuts all over my body.

“Vega Jane,” screamed Delph as he raced over and knelt next to me. He looked up furiously at Astrea. “What did you do to her? What!”